Abduction and Computer Game Design
Introduction
In this paper, I will look at the process of abductive reasoning and show the implications of this concept as it applies to computer game design. While my comments will relate to most computer games, I will specifically discuss two games: Doom, which is produced by the Id software company, and Myst, which is produced by Broderbund software.
Doom
First, a little information about the game Doom. The first version of Doom was released as shareware (free demonstration software) in 1993, and its successors have included Doom II, Ultimate Doom and other variations. It has also inspired many similar games from other companies. Estimates put the number of players of this multiple-computer-platform software program at 10 million worldwide. One of the developers of Doom once boasted, "In 1994, we fully expect to be the number one cause of decreased productivity in businesses around the world. “
What characteristics have led Doom and its many imitators to such success? I would argue that the most important reason is that game puts the player in an immersive environment. There is a compelling sense of “virtual reality” (to use a term that is more a cliche than any real description) in Doom. The action of the game is presented from a first-person point of view; that is, what you see on the computer screen is approximately what the character you are playing would see. Your character is invisible, just as you cannot see yourself but in a mirror; however, the weapon the character is holding is visible in the lower center of the screen. This technique of first-person presentation (fig. 1) serves to involve the player in the game action more directly than a third-person, overhead view might, and it makes for a more 'realistic' presentation of the "3D" action. As the player moves from room to room, lights flicker and fade and sounds get louder or softer. Doom has a frame (or image) rate greater than that of film or television, which has been shown to create an effect of heightened 'reality.' Players have been observed exhibiting physical responses to the game's action: ducking and leaping back from the screen, and trying to peer 'around' the walls displayed on the monitor.
Doom can be played by a single person alone, by two people over a modem, or by up to four connected to a computer network, and these networked players can either cooperate or compete against each other.
On April 20, 1999, in a small town of Littleton, Colorado, two high school students by the name of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris executed their plan to kill hundreds of their fellow students. With a multitude of guns, knives, and bombs, they walked down the halls of Columbine High School and started their massacre. In the end, twelve students, one teacher, and the murderers were dead with twenty one more injured. Klebold and Harris were both highly intelligent boys who came from a solid household. Both boys had also played sports and enjoyed working with computers. The motive for shooting at school is very unclear. One of the speculated motives was the influence of the highly violent video game Doom (Rosenburg). The video game Doom is about the main protagonist, DoomGuy, the toughest marine anyone has ever seen. After assaulting his commanding officer for trying to order him to open fire upon innocent civilians, he was sent to Mars as punishment. Meanwhile, evil has risen from the depths of the red planet. Being the only combat ready soldiers in a million miles, it is his and his squad mates duty to track down and kill a variety of evil creatures; such as murderous demon minotaurs, robot spiders, and meatball-looking demons. While DoomGuy was on look out, his squad has been viciously killed off by the many creatures of the red planet. Now it is up to DoomGuy to cleanse the planet from the evil with his only set back being that his squad mates took all of the guns and all DoomGuy has left is a pistol. Video games allow the players to experience the immense world the game has to offer. From a futuristic sci-fi shooter to a medieval action adventure, players are able to live out the adventures of the many heroes and villains and explore many different worlds within the broad setting any one game has to offer. Nevertheless, since the late 1900’s, video game industry has
When developing video games, cultural rhetoric is a positive component to include in any game design. It can help highlight details within a game design and make the overall game more compelling. In addition, cultural rhetoric within games helps recognize cultural distinction and allows gamers to interact with people of different cultures. The concept of cultural rhetoric within a video game is to make the components simulate objects that are familiar in the real world and also allow the gamer to be able to define cultural differences between different groups of society throughout the world. “Seeing games as a social contexts for social cultural learning acknowledges how games replicate, reproduce, and sometime transform cultural beliefs and principals” ( S&Z 516). Including cultural differences and objects within a game helps draw consumers towards gaming because shows a sense of reality that is seen through the mise-en-scene and the overall play experience. A good example of a game that contains cultural rhetoric and is portrayed by its game design is Left 4 Dead 2. Left 4 Dead 2 is able to exemplify the idea of cultural competence through the mise-en-scene, the representations of gender through the characters and the play experience through its online multiplayer mode.
Bissell comically explains what he would say to his hypothetical children, “My beloved Kermit, my dear little Hussein, at the moment America changed forever, your father was wandering an ICBM-denuded wasteland, nervously monitoring his radiation level, armed only with a baseball bat, a 10mm pistol, and six rounds of ammunition, in search of a vicious gang of mohawked marauders who were 100 percent bad news and totally had to be dealt with. Trust Daddy on this one (351).” His impulsiveness and love for Fallout 3 causes him to miss a pivotal moment in history. Impressively though, games can be considered art; for example, Fallout 3 includes “skulls exploding into the distinct flotsam of eyeballs, gray matter, and upper vertebrae (354).” Bissell describes the effects happening within the game and how realistic they can be. Games are purely awe inspiring. The makers of Fallout 3 poured rigorous amounts of energy to create a beautiful “past-future never-never-land weirdness (355).”
As we evolve into a more advanced species, so does our technology, and along with our overly advanced technology, comes video games. They’ve have certainly come a long way since they were first introduced to the main stream audience and have been slowly creeping its way into many daily lives, making them a lot more entertaining and less dull. Video games’ one and only purpose is to entertain. However, it is indeed true that everything is fun and games until somebody gets hurt, and that is exactly what has happened over the years in video games. With the help of our technology, being more developed than ever, video games have also become increasingly sophisticated and overall more close to reality than
At this time, video games have made their way into the homes and hearts of many people since their meager beginnings as television novelties and arcade hits. But what goes into the process of creating a video game? Games, especially board games, don’t just happen. Their digital counterparts are not part of the exception either. There are painstaking processes and stages involved in creating and developing a game so that it is ready to be marketed to the public and so it also appeals to a certain fanbase or so it appeals to the masses. There is also the level of immersion and engagement that has to take priority within a game so that the player feels invested enough within the game to continue playing it after a certain period of time. The stages that take place within the creation cycle of a game can vary, but they usually follow three main phases. These phases are the Pre-production, production, then testing phases.
Art can be divide in to two different categories, “literacy arts,” art forms that attempt to tell a story, and “fine arts,” traditional works, sculptures, and paintings, as well music and dance. Video games, along with film, are an example of a literacy art form. Video games are increasingly becoming literacy art by telling stories that are equal if not better than those found in most movies. Not just mediocre stories to have them in the games, but compelling stories that drive the player to push forward. Bioshock, a 2007 release, is an example of this increasing importance of stories in video games. Influenced by philosophy and the works of Ayn Rand, the creator where able to create a cautionary tale of man’s individualism and genetic tweaking (VerBruggen).
lines as games such as DOOM and Quake; but it has one important difference it is
...g products to enhance the human body in producing muscles without consequences to that person's and also possibly help cure diseases and genetic deficiencies that haven't been cured yet.
How does the minds of people who might have mental illness that play violent video games such as Doom, all of the Grand theft Auto games, all of the Halo games, and all of the Call of Duty affect the turnout of events or the loses of reality.
The shooters at Columbine high school, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold frequently played violent video games such as Doom, and Harris even created a modification for the game. The modification allowed two shooters to use a large arsenal weapons to shoot unarmed civilians (Anderson 353). Is seems eeril...
The texts studied engage audiences to the paradigms of everyday life through the use of literary techniques showing a deeper metaphorical meaning of the poem, this is evident in all three poems stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening, Mending walls and The Road Not Taken. Robert Frost has creatively incorporated in metaphor leaving the audience to have different understanding of the poems which all symposia about everyday life.
Since its emerge as a genre of science fiction in the 1980s steampunk has transformed into a sub-culture with developing fan communities all around the world. Its distinctive features based on Victorian fashions, recreation of this fashion with modern tools and equipment, and solving modern day’s problems with steam powered, bronze coated unrealistic machinery. (Ferguson 66). Although the elements that created steampunk were mainly based on fashion, Rebecca Onion expanded this idea by claiming most steampunk works based on aestheticism, and a relationship of visuality between retro-Victorian style and contemporary technology (Onion 138). This relationship between style and technology helped creating a unique connection for popular entertainment of today and became intriguing for the generations of modern age. As one of the most popular ways of entertainment, video games were the most suitable choose for answering public demands and steampunk games started to be published by game developers. The children of the modern age showed their interests almost immediately and steampunk themed video games became one of the most loved genre for video game enthusiasts.
However, the United States penal system evolved in such a way that the rehabilitation of offenders became the primary focus instead of punishment as the main objective. Today, the correctional system offers different alternatives to imprisonment. For example, parole is “the conditional release of inmates by a parole board prior to the expiration of their sentence”. (Seiter, p. 149). I believe that parole is a better alternative to imprisonment because the offender is still serving time for the crime they committed, and if the offender becomes eligible for parole he or she could be released from prison early. However, if the offender violates the conditions of their parole then that individual will go before a parole board and may return to prison and finish out their
Cyber bullying is when someone is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, or just a target by a mobile phone or internet, most of the time, both. Cyber bullying can include anything from the list provided above, by text message, instant message, email, blogs, social websites, etc. As more and more children gain access to these, the more people are being harmed. Bullying is aggressive behavior that is intentional and involves an imbalance of power or strength. Usually, it is repeated over time. Normally, bullying involved actions such as: physical bullying, verbal bullying, or intimidation through gestures or social exclusion. Cyber bullying affects many young people all over the world to a point that the victims and their families and friends suffer serious emotional and physical problems. To help avoid future tradgeties, I would like to educate you more on what it is.
Cyber-bullying can occur at anytime, and anywhere through cell phones, text messaging, videos, emails, blogging, Facebooks, Instagram and more. With all the different communication channels and social medias, It can be used to insult, spread rumors, impersonate, and